The dollar weakened after news that USA producer prices unexpectedly fell in July, recording their biggest drop in almost a year and pointing to a further moderation in inflation that could delay a Federal Reserve interest rate increase. Major indexes in Asia closed lower.

Asian equities extended heavy losses Friday as a worldwide sell-off triggered by US President Donald Trump doubling down on his North Korea rhetoric showed no sign of abating.

The world equity markets have lost 1000 billions of dollars of funding since the beginning of the verbal sparring between the United States and North Korea.

"Trump's comments about North Korea have created nervousness and the fear is if the President really means what he said: "fire and fury"," said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets in London.

The strength on Wall Street was partly due to bargain hunting, with traders picking up stocks at reduced levels following the pullback seen over the past few sessions. Randgold Resources Ltd. and Barrick Gold Corp. were among the best performers, each gaining more than 1.4 percent.

North Korea responded hours later, saying it was considering a missile strike on the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam.

The bond market was without direction: the yield of u.s. Treasury bills to 10 years, which evolves to the inverse of the bond price, appears to 2,190 %, compared to 2,198 % Thursday evening, and that bills to 30 years at 2,786 %, compared to 2,773 %. The dollar notched a two-month trough on the safe-haven Japanese yen and was last down 0.3 percent at 109.99. Netflix also fell, giving up $2.58, or 1.4 percent, to $175.78.

The Federal Reserve is also scheduled to release the minutes of its latest monetary policy meeting, which may shed some light on the outlook for the interest rates.

Department store operator J.C. Penney (JCP) is also among the companies due to report their results before the start of trading on Friday. The euro rose to $1.1812 from $1.1774. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dropped 1.2 percent.

The S&P 500 dropped the most since May and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS lost 1.1 percent in its third straight day of declines, as it pulled further back from all-time highs.

"A global stock market fund will have its fair share of value and growth companies, unlike -say- the FTSE 100 index which is predominately value-orientated with its bias towards energy, mining and financial, or the Japanese TOPIX which is growth-orientated with a predominance of consumer goods companies".

Comments

Latest Posts

Gold climbs amid US-North Korean 'sabre-rattling'
In the United Kingdom , gold mining stocks Randgold Resource and Fresnillo were among the few to gain - up 2.8% and 4.9%. The market was waiting f or US consumer inflation data on Friday that would offer more clues about future Fed decisions.

Wall St. Lower as Investors Weigh Rising N. Korea Tensions
About 6.22 billion shares changed hands on US stock exchanges, slightly above the 6.15 billion average for the last 20 sessions. Eight of the 11 major S&P sectors were lower, with the consumer discretionary index's 0.59 percent fall leading the decliners.

Tesla (TSLA) Earns Media Sentiment Rating of 0.08
Press coverage about Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA ) has been trending somewhat positive on Saturday, according to Accern. The firm acquired 688 shares of the electric vehicle producer's stock, valued at approximately $249,000.

Total eclipse of the sun
You should never look at an eclipse with the naked eye, but there are plenty of other unsafe methods to avoid, as well . Eclipse Safari offers the NASA live stream of the Eclipse and a Twitter feed with the latest eclipse related tweets.

Arsenal's Sanchez out of opener with abdominal strain
He missed the Community Shield victory over Chelsea with flu and now Wenger has said he is out with an abdominal strain. Asked if any bids had been lodged for Sanchez, the Frenchman replied: " I can't tell you that at the moment".

Stocks plunge over North Korea tensions
Wall Street's fear gauge - the CBOE Volatility Index or the VIX - surged 44%, its second-biggest one-day jump of the year. The Dow Jones industrial average slid 204.69 points, or 0.9 percent, to 21,844.01, just shy of its low point for the day.

Guam 'well-equipped' to handle North Korean threat: governor
The exchange of aggressive rhetoric may unnecessarily intensify tensions and lead to the outbreak of unanticipated situations. The Washington Post asked a range of experts in both the United States and South Korea if this time was any different.

US Navy destroyer conducts operation in South China Sea
Geng reiterated that the U.S. provocation would force China to take further measures to strengthen homeland defense capacity. A Chinese defense spokesman said at the time "the parties concerned don't need to overreact and make a great fuss about it".

Investors React to Trump's North Korea Threats
The 30-year bond last rose 5/32 in price to yield 2.8107 per cent, from 2.818 per cent late on Wednesday. KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 7 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,466 as of 11:20 a.m.

Paris open to video games at Olympics
IOC president Thomas Bach has said that eSports are contrary to "Olympic rules and values of sport". Video games and eSports may have a chance of being part of the 2024 Olympics .

Arsenal offer Alexis Sanchez mammoth £300000-a-week contract
Arsenal have signed two players so far this summer as they prepare to try and challenge for the Premier League title this season. Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger admits that he is "not super optimistic" about Alexis Sanchez's contract situation.